We are grateful to Michael Moore for his generous financial donation to the Minneapolis Police Museum today!
Thank you Michael for helping us to encourage an understanding of the role of policing in the development of our city and to share our stories with the intention of fostering empathy, interest and understanding.
We appreciate your support!
We are grateful to Peter Borman for his generous financial donation to the Minneapolis Police Museum today!
Thank you Peter for helping us to collect and preserve our materials, to share our rich heritage, to deepen our connections, and to ensure our future.
We appreciate your support!
We are grateful to Stephen Traxler for his generous financial donation to the Minneapolis Police Museum today!
Thank you Stephen for helping us in our mission to tell the story of policing within a context that honors our officers and relates the remarkable stories of the neighborhoods they have served.
Your support means the world to us, Stephen!
The names of fallen U.S. law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty will be formally dedicated on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial during a virtual Candlelight Vigil tonight Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 7:00pm Central Time.
Traditionally held on the National Mall with more than 30,000 first responders, surviving families and law enforcement supporters in attendance, special remarks and the names of each of the men and women who died in the line of duty during 2019 will be read aloud during the virtual Candlelight Vigil, which will be live streamed. The names of fallen law enforcement officers who died earlier in history, but whose sacrifice had not been previously documented, will also be read during this time.
For more information and to learn how to view the vigil, visit: https://nleomf.org/programs-events/national-police-week/candlelight-vigil
We have another story to share with you from the “Minneapolis Police 150th Anniversary” book published by Acclaim Press (currently out of print).
Upon arrival, there was nothing notable about the domestic call Officer Joe Schany and Officer Rod Rabine responded to on May 22, 2011. But shortly after stepping inside the front door of a home on the 3800 block of Girard Avenue North, Officer Schany heard something remarkable on his radio.
“Dispatch asked ‘can anybody confirm a tornado in North Minneapolis?’ I stepped outside, and wow, it was right there. We saw the big swirling debris and we confirmed it!” he remembers. He stared down the twister from about 150 yards away. “We went down to the basement and actually the domestic kind of went away. The two people that were fighting started hugging.“
Officer Schany heard that “freight train” sound everyone describes on the news. It was followed by moments of silence before car alarms and sirens filled the afternoon air. “You walk into a house on a domestic and you come out… it’s a totally different landscape. Just the devastation the tornado caused, you had to be in awe.”
The officer and his partner tried to navigate the streets, driving up on lawns at times to avoid massive trees that blocked Fremont Avenue. They helped folks out of their homes and quickly discovered one of the two people who were killed in the tornado — a man sitting in his car had been crushed by a massive fallen tree.
3,700 homes were damaged that Sunday afternoon. The tornado cut a three-and-a-half mile path through North Minneapolis, tossing around 6,000 trees, destroy- ing 350 traffic signs, 75 street lights, and 1,600 sidewalk panels.
Sergeant Chuck Peter remembers the weeks following the weather event. “A lot of officers were helping families gather belongings. Some people wanted to temporarily move out of the area and officers helped them load up their cars and trucks with boxes,” Sergeant Peter said.
“It was a memorable point in my career, what happened. I got to see the good of people and what can come out of it. I’ve experienced a lot of incidents that have been bad, but this (the cooperative aftermath) definitely ended up being one of the good ones,” Officer Schany concluded.
Article originally appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune
We are excited to share the news that the Minneapolis Police Museum has just been featured on the Hennepin County Library – Special Collections Tumblr!
Many thanks to our friends at the Hennepin County Library – Special Collections for their thoughtful support of our mission!
This week is National Police Week and this Friday, May 15, is National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls, as National Police Week. Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
In Washington, D.C. each year, 25,000-40,000 attendees gather to participate in National Police Week events including a Blue Mass, Candlelight Vigil, Wreath Laying Ceremony, Honor Guard Competition, and the Emerald Society & Pipe Band March and Service.
Members of the Minneapolis Police Honor Guard customarily travel to Washington, DC to take part in these ceremonies. There, they also honor the service and memory of Minneapolis Police Officers killed in the line of duty through a ceremony they themselves have created. For each of our officers killed in the line of duty, they place 5×7 laminated cards that they have designed and made with the officer’s line of duty story, the officer’s picture and the Minneapolis Police Department’s patch. As our guard members affix each laminated card to the stone base of the memorial, they find the name of our officer and trace it to the exact spot on the stone, rubbing a finger over the name and saying the name as part of a tradition of “remembering and speaking”.
Here at home, our Honor Guard and Color Guards customarily also participate in National Police Week ceremonies and vigils at the Minneapolis City Hall or the Hennepin County Government Center and at the Law Enforcement Memorial on the State Capitol grounds in St Paul.
In the midst of the pandemic, public National Police Week events and ceremonies in Minnesota and throughout the nation have been cancelled for 2020.
This year, instead of a public memorial, the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association (LEMA) will hold a ceremony honoring Minnesota’s Fallen Law Enforcement Officers on May 15th and will share the program on Facebook LIVE at 7:00 p.m. CST on Friday, May 15th. Here is a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinnesotaLawEnforcementMemorialAssociationlema/
Photograph courtesy of Amy Sizer
Best wishes for a Happy Mother’s Day from the Minneapolis Police Museum!
This is the third of three photographs of Chief Tony Bouza presenting awards to officers. In each photograph, a young Sergeant John Laux stands in the background assisting. Can you help us identify the officer who is receiving the award in this photograph?
Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library
This is the second of three photographs of Chief Tony Bouza presenting awards to officers. In each photograph, a young Sergeant John Laux stands in the background assisting. Can you help us identify the officer who is receiving the award in this photograph?
Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library